staged to sell ~ styled to perfection

Month: February 2014

There’s really not much “before” to show in this room. Just a very blah, small bedroom that was a toy dumping ground and hamster bedroom when we first moved into our house 4 years ago. When I started working from home, this seemed like the perfect spot for my office. My house is generally pretty neutral, but I wanted this room to be more fun and colorful – a really happy place to be. Here’s the space before. Awful, I know! But I knew this little nook had great potential as the perfect spot for a desk. It’s a wonderful, sunny spot for work now. To help fill the space above the desk I sprayed the frames of some thrift shop cork boards white and covered the cork with handmade paper found at Luckett’s Store, an awesome, funky antique shop with lots of vintage treasures. Kitchen spice holders from Ikea (attached to a magnetic knife holder) are great for keeping small items contained and helping keep the desktop clear. These jade calendar blocks were always on my …

Laundry rooms have gone quite glamourous lately. Have you seen? Chandeliers and beautiful glass containers and artwork. And really, why not? Most of us spend enough time in our laundry rooms that they should be nice to look at. Here are some of my favorites. So pretty! Wouldn’t you love to wash, dry, fold, repeat in this laundry room? The dark washer and dryer sets a different tone in this laundry room. Detergent – check Fabric softener – check Disco ball – check This one is fit for a princess with its sparkly chandelier and Tiffany box blue. You have to see the amazing transformation of the laundry room below at Chez Larsson. A great example of what can be done with a can or two of white paint. I love these chalkboard painted cabinets and the warmth of the wood countertop. And in that same laundry room, the cleverly painted stripe of white with lots of hooks. The above laundry room gets an A+ for beautification on a budget. The floor was retiled, …

At Staged for Style we celebrated our 3rd birthday a few days ago. Happy Birthday to us! What a fantastic 3 years it has been. We are so grateful to all of you, our amazing friends, families and clients, who have supported us in this adventure. We certainly couldn’t have done it without you. As it’s our birthday, this seems like a perfect time to show off our new logo. You’ve probably already seen it, but we love it so much that it deserves a special introduction. We loved our original logo: and while we wanted an update, we still wanted to keep some version of our chair and use similar colors. We worked with April Brinkley at “Lipstick and Rouge” and she was fantastic. Her website is full of her wonderful creations and she gave us so many great options to chose from – it was really hard to narrow it down. In the end we found something that suits us perfectly and we really love it. Ta da… We hope you like our …

There’s a lot to be said for colors that are really saturated and intense. Fun and bright. They can make us really happy. Or they can be overwhelming. Colors can also be trendy and can become tiresome after a while. So how can we live with the colors we love and not be overwhelmed by them? How can we enjoy color without overcommitting? I have an idea, and it revolves around a very neutral palate created by one of my very favorite colors… white. Yes white. I could go on and on about white. I love it. For now though, just a few examples of how white can be your best friend when it comes to enjoying your favorite, most vivid, vibrant colors. Let’s start with turquoise. It has been a super hot color for years. We’ve seen it everywhere. You could certainly paint a room this color and love it: Or try something a little different: Isn’t this fantastic? I am in love with this bedroom. Soothing and calm and clean and then… hello …

We often find that people who haven’t updated their homes in a while feel overwhelmed, don’t know where to start and end up doing nothing. This can lead to a serious mid-life crisis for your home. The good news is that this kind of mid-life crisis can be relatively inexpensive and easy to fix. I have some suggestions for updates that are actually very wise investments in your home. Investments, why? Because these are things that will make your home look not only more beautiful, but also up-to-date and cared for. And homes that are cared for hold their value. It’s just common sense. Here are 3 very important things to consider when investing in updates for your home. Of course there are more, but these will get you off to a great start. 1. Replace dated brass light fixtures and ceiling fans. Brass is coming back in in a huge way. The new brass has a softer patina, a more vintage feel and looks something like this gorgeous thing: I’m taking about getting …

After going on and on about beige recently in this post, I thought maybe it was time for a little chat about color. Have you heard about the color of the year, Pantone’s “Radiant Orchid”? And it is really quite radiant! Not for wallflowers. This bold shade of purple really stands out. Could you picture a whole room full? How about a piece of furniture? Personally, if nothing else I could definitely live with this – and love it! If you’re not familiar with Pantone, they do make paint, but they are also know as the global authority on color. Their ‘color of the year’ selection is used by many consumer manufacturing companies to guide their designs for future products. So be on the lookout for “Radiant Orchid”. I’m starting to notice it all over the place! Sherwin Williams has their own color of the year called “Exclusive Plum”. Still in the purple family, but a bit more sophisticated, lots more gray. It makes quite a statement in this space. And plum is lovely here …